China Hmong traditions and legends indicate that they originated near the
Yellow River region of northern
China, but this is not substantiated by any scientific evidence. According to linguist
Martha Ratliff, there is linguistic evidence to suggest that they have occupied some of the same areas of southern China for over 8,000 years.
Chi You is the Hmong ancestral God of War. Today, a statue of Chi You has been erected in the town named
Zhuolu. 's campaign against the Hmong people at Lancaoping in 1795 Conflict between the Hmong of southern China and newly arrived Han settlers increased during the 18th century under repressive economic and cultural reforms imposed by the
Qing dynasty. This led to
armed conflict and large-scale migrations well into the late 19th century, the period during which many Hmong people emigrated to Southeast Asia. However, the migration process had begun as early as the late 17th century, before the time of major social unrest, when small groups went in search of better agricultural opportunities. The Hmong people were subjected to persecution and genocide by the
Qing dynasty government. Arthur A. Hansen wrote: "In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, while the Hmong lived in south-western China, their
Manchu overlords had labeled them '
Miao' and targeted them for
genocide." Since 1949, the
Miao people () has been an official term for one of the
56 official minority groups recognized by the government of the
People's Republic of China. The Miao live mainly in southern China, in the provinces of
Guizhou,
Hunan,
Yunnan,
Sichuan,
Guangxi,
Hainan,
Guangdong, and
Hubei. According to the 2000 census, the number of 'Miao' in China was estimated to be about 9.6 million. The Miao nationality includes Hmong people as well as other culturally and linguistically related ethnic groups who do not call themselves Hmong. These include the
Hmu, Kho (Qho) Xiong, and
A-Hmao. The settling region of the Hmong in China is further western than that of the other groups, mainly in Guizhou, Yunnan, Sichuan, Chongqing, and Guangxi.
Vietnam The Hmong or Miao began to migrate to Tonkin (Northern Vietnam) in the 19th century, where they struggled to establish their community on the high mountains. They recognized the Tai-speaking overlords of valleys, who were vassals of the Vietnamese court in Hue. The Hue court of
Tu Duc at the time was facing crisis after crisis, unable to retake control of Tonkin and the border regions. The
Taiping Rebellion and other Chinese rebels spilled over into Vietnam and had caused anarchy; the Hmong communities thrived on either sides of the Red River, harmonizing with other ethnic groups, and were largely ignored by all factions. During the colonization of '
Tonkin' (
North Vietnam) between 1883 and 1954, a number of Hmong decided to join the
Vietnamese Nationalists and
Communists, while many
Christianized Hmong sided with the French. After the
Viet Minh victory, numerous pro-French Hmong had to fall back to Laos and
South Vietnam.
Laos After decades of distant relations with the Lao kingdoms, closer relations between the French military and some Hmong on the Xieng Khouang plateau arose after
World War II. There, a rivalry between members of the Lo and Ly clans developed into open enmity, also affecting those connected with them by kinship. Clan leaders took opposite sides; as a consequence, several thousand Hmong participated in the fighting against the
Pathet Lao Communists, while almost as many were enrolled in the communist
Lao People's Revolutionary Army. In Laos, numerous Hmong genuinely tried to avoid getting involved in the conflict in spite of the extremely difficult material conditions under which they lived during wartime.
The U.S. and the Laotian Civil War In the early 1960s, partially as a result of the
North Vietnamese invasion of Laos, the U.S.
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
Special Activities Division began to recruit, train and lead the indigenous Hmong people in Laos to fight against
North Vietnamese Army divisions that were invading Laos during the
Vietnam War. This "Secret Army" was organized into various mobile regiments and divisions, including Special Guerrilla Units, all of whom were led by General
Vang Pao. An estimated sixty-percent (60%) of Hmong men in Laos joined up. While there were Hmong soldiers who fought with the communist Pathet Lao and the North Vietnamese, others were recognized for serving in combat against the NVA and the
Pathet Lao, helping block Hanoi's
Ho Chi Minh trail inside Laos and rescuing downed American pilots. Though their role was generally kept secret in the early stages of the conflict, they made great sacrifices to help the U.S. Thousands of
economic and
political refugees have resettled in
Western countries in two separate waves. The first wave resettled in the late 1970s, mostly in the
United States after the
North Vietnamese and
Pathet Lao takeovers of the pro-U.S. governments
in South Vietnam and
Laos respectively. The
Lao Veterans of America, and Lao Veterans of America Institute, helped to assist in the resettlement of many Laotian and Hmong refugees and asylum seekers in the United States, especially former Hmong veterans and their family members who served in the "U.S. Secret Army" in Laos during the Vietnam War.
Hmong Lao resistance . For many years, the Neo Hom political movement played a key role in resistance to the
Vietnam People's Army in Laos following the U.S. withdrawal in 1975;
Vang Pao played a significant role in this movement. Additionally, a spiritual leader,
Zong Zoua Her, as well as other Hmong leaders, including
Pa Kao Her or Pa Khao Her, rallied some of their followers in a factionalized guerrilla resistance movement called
ChaoFa (
RPA: Cob Fab,
Pahawh Hmong: ). These events led to the
yellow rain controversy when the
United States accused the
Soviet Union of supplying and using chemical weapons in this conflict. Small groups of Hmong people, many second or third generation descendants of former CIA soldiers, remain internally displaced in remote parts of Laos, in fear of government reprisals. Faced with continuing military operations against them by the government and a scarcity of food, some groups have begun coming out of hiding, while others have sought asylum in Thailand and other countries. Hmong in Laos, in particular, developed a stronger and deeper
anti-Vietnamese sentiment than their Vietnamese Hmong cousins, due to historic persecution perpetrated by the Vietnamese against them.
Controversy over repatriation In June 1991, after talks with the
UNHCR and the Thai government, Laos agreed to the repatriation of over 60,000 Lao refugees living in Thailand, including tens of thousands of Hmong people. Very few of the Lao refugees, however, were willing to return voluntarily. Pressure to resettle the refugees grew as the Thai government worked to close its remaining refugee camps. While some Hmong people returned to Laos voluntarily, with development assistance from UNHCR, coercive measures and forced repatriation was used to send thousands of Hmong back to the places they had fled. Of the Hmong who did return to Laos, some quickly escaped back to Thailand, describing discrimination and brutal treatment at the hands of Lao authorities. In the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s,
The Center for Public Policy Analysis, a non-governmental public policy research organization, and its executive director, Philip Smith, played a key role in raising awareness in the U.S. Congress and policy-making circles in Washington, D.C. about the plight of the Hmong and Laotian refugees in Thailand and Laos. The CPPA, backed by a bipartisan coalition of members of the
U.S. Congress and human rights organizations, conducted numerous research missions to the Hmong and Laotian refugee camps along the
Mekong River in Thailand, as well as the Buddhist temple of
Wat Tham Krabok.
Amnesty International, the
Lao Veterans of America, Inc., the
United League for Democracy in Laos, Inc.,
Lao Human Rights Council, Inc. (led by Dr. Pobzeb Vang
Vang Pobzeb, and later Vaughn Vang) and other non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and human rights organizations joined the opposition to forced repatriation. thousands of Hmong people refused to return to Laos. In 1996, as the deadline for the closure of Thai refugee camps approached, under mounting political pressure, the U.S. agreed to resettle Hmong refugees who passed a new screening process. Around 5,000 Hmong people who were not resettled at the time of the camp closures sought asylum at
Wat Tham Krabok, a
Buddhist monastery in central Thailand where more than 10,000 Hmong refugees were already living. The Thai government attempted to repatriate these refugees, but the Wat Tham Krabok Hmong refused to leave and the Lao government refused to accept them, claiming they were involved in the
illegal drug trade and were of non-Lao origin. In 2003, following threats of forcible removal by the Thai government, the U.S., in a significant victory for the Hmong, agreed to accept 15,000 of the refugees. Several thousand Hmong people, fearing forced repatriation to Laos if they were not accepted for resettlement in the U.S., fled the camp to live elsewhere within Thailand where a sizable Hmong population has been present since the 19th century. In 2004 and 2005, thousands of Hmong fled from the jungles of Laos to a temporary refugee camp in the Thai province of
Phetchabun. The
European Union,
UNHCHR, and international groups have since spoken out about the forced repatriation.
Alleged plot to overthrow the government of Laos On 4 June 2007, as part of an investigation labeled
Operation Tarnished Eagle, U.S. federal courts ordered warrants issued for the arrest of
Vang Pao and nine others for plotting to overthrow the government of Laos in violation of federal
Neutrality Acts and for multiple weapons charges. The federal charges alleged that members of the group inspected weapons, including
AK-47s,
smoke grenades, and
Stinger missiles, in order to buy and smuggle into Thailand in June 2007, where they were intended to be used by Hmong resistance forces in Laos. Out of the 9 arrested, one was an American, Harrison Jack, a 1968
West Point graduate and retired Army infantry officer who allegedly attempted to recruit
Special Operations veterans to act as
mercenaries. To obtain the weapons, Jack allegedly met unknowingly with undercover U.S. federal agents posing as weapons dealers, prompting the warrants, part of a long-running investigation into the activities of the U.S.-based Hmong leadership and its supporters. On 15 June, the defendants were indicted by a
grand jury; a
warrant was also issued for the arrest of an 11th man allegedly involved in the plot. Simultaneous raids of the defendants' homes and work locations, involving over 200 federal, state and local law enforcement officials, were conducted in approximately 15 U.S. cities in
Central and
Southern California. Multiple protest rallies in support of the suspects, designed to raise awareness of the treatment of Hmong peoples in the jungles of Laos, took place in
California,
Minnesota,
Wisconsin, and
Alaska. Several of
Vang Pao's high-level supporters in the U.S. criticized the California court that issued the arrest warrants, arguing that Vang was a historically important American ally and a valued leader of U.S. and foreign-based Hmong. Calls to Californian
Republican governor
Arnold Schwarzenegger and President
George W. Bush to pardon the defendants went unanswered pending a conclusion to the large, ongoing federal investigation. On 18 September 2009, the U.S. federal government dropped all charges against Vang Pao, announcing that the federal government was permitted to consider "the probable sentence or other consequences if the person is convicted". On 10 January 2011, after Vang Pao's death, the federal government dropped all charges against the remaining defendants saying, "Based on the totality of the circumstances in the case, the government believes, as a discretionary matter, that continued prosecution of defendants is no longer warranted."
Thailand The presence of Hmong settlements in Thailand is documented from the end of the 19th century on. Initially, the
Siamese paid little attention to them. But in the early 1950s, the state suddenly took a number of initiatives aimed at establishing links. Decolonization and nationalism were gaining momentum in the peninsula and wars of independence were raging. Armed opposition to the state in northern Thailand, triggered by outside influence, started in 1967 while again many Hmong refused to take sides in the conflict. Communist
guerrilla warfare stopped by 1982 as a result of an international concurrence of events that rendered it pointless. Priority has since been given by the Thai state to sedentarizing the mountain population, introducing commercially viable agricultural techniques and national education, with the aim of integrating these non-Tai animists within the national identity.
In the United States Many Hmong refugees resettled in the United States after the
Vietnam War. Beginning in December 1975, the first Hmong refugees arrived in the U.S., mainly from refugee camps in Thailand; however, only 3,466 were granted asylum at that time under the
Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act of 1975. In May 1976, another 11,000 were allowed to enter the United States, and by 1978 some 30,000 Hmong people had emigrated. This first wave was made up predominantly of men directly associated with General
Vang Pao's secret army. It was not until the passage of the
Refugee Act of 1980 that families were able to enter the U.S., becoming the second wave of Hmong immigrants. Hmong families were scattered across all 50 states but most found their way to each other, building large communities in California, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Washington State and Oregon. Smaller, but still sizeable communities also formed in Massachusetts (
Lowell), Michigan (
Detroit), Montana (
Missoula) and Alaska (
Anchorage). ==Culture==